Current issues in economics

What are the highest paid sports leagues?

NBA basketball has the highest average salary of any sports league followed by IPL cricket with baseball coming in third. Over half of the highest paid leagues were football with the EPL and the Bundesliga being above US$2 million. It is interesting that La Liga is third within the Football category even though a Spanish team has won the Champions League 5 times in the last 7 years.

In cricket the Twenty20 format has proved to be very popular with television viewers and gets very good attendances most notably in the IPL (India), Big Bash (Australia) and T20 Blast (England). In September this year IPL signed a five year contract worth US$2.55bn (US$510m per year) for broadcast and digital rights with Star India – a TV network owned by 21st Century Fox. The IPL competition involves just 60 matches which equates to US$8.5m per game which is 400% higher than the NBA per game and 66% greater per game than that of the EPL.

Cricket in the USA
Although cricket is globally very popular it has very limited uptake in the USA – both players and spectators. Sport in the USA has a high income elasticity of demand which means a change in income results in a greater percentage increase in demand. An Indian Media firm – Times of India Group – are hoping to tap into the American market and put on high profile cricket matches with the leading players in the game. The games generally take place in baseball stadiums but the firm is considering building cricket stadiums.